The Canadian Railroader Weekly. Vol. 3 No. 13: March 26 , 1921

Vol. 3, No. 13 MONTREAL, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1921 10 cents a copy, $3.00 a year

THROUGH NATURE’S WONDERLAND

On the Kettle Valley Railroad, West of Penticton, British Columbia.

Official Organ, Fifth Sunday Meeting Association of Canada

Page 2

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

►

1 U5*C

SHOE MACHINERY SHOE SUPPLIES

SHOE REPAIRING MACHINERY

Tanners and Manufacturers of

Leather Belting for 45 Years.

united Shoe Machinery of Canada Limited

MONTREAL, Que. TORONTO, Ont. ST. JOHNS, N. B

511 William St. 38 Wellington St. East. 149 Prince William Street.

MONTREAL

WINNIPEG, Man. VANCOUVER, B. C.

Princess Street and Bannatyne Ave 560 Beatty Street.

TORONTO KITCHENER QUEBEC

Telephone: Victoria 500 ESTABLISHED 1838

The PECK ROLLING MILLS, Limited

Manufacturers of

Bar Iron and Steel, Railway Spikes, Ship Spikes,
Horse Shoes, Wire Nails, Cut Nails,

Tacks and Washers

HEAD OFFICE AND WORKS : 63 MILL STREET

MONTREAL

The Nichols Chemical Co., Ltd.

ACIDS AND HEAVY CHEMICALS

Agents for Baker & Adamson’s Chemically Pure Acids
and Chemicals.

Agents for Canadian Salt Co. — ‘‘Windsor” Brand Caustic Soda and
Bleaching Powder.

Wilks: Capelton, Que., Sulphide, Ont., Barnet, B. C.

Warehouses: Montreal, Toronto.

222 St. James Street MONTREAL

Taylor & Arnold Engineering Co.

LIMITED

MANUFACTURERS OF

Railway, Marine and

Brass Specialties

MONTREAL WINNIPEG

CHI TUBE IE ■ CO.. LIMITED

• MONTREAL, Que.

Wrought Pipe Black and Galvanized, Nipples, Couplings. Bolts,

Nuts, Rivets

BAR IRON AND STEEL

Wire Nails, Fence Staples, Wire of all kinds— Wood Screws

Works: LACHINE CANAL

The

Canadian Bridge Co.

Limited

WALKERVILLE, Ont.

Great West Electric

COMPANY, LIMITED

WHOLESALE

ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES

Eden Washing Machines
Heating Specialties
Motors, Wiring, Supplies, Lamps.

61-63-65 Albert Street

WINNIPEG, Man.

March 26, 1921

tHE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page i

Toronto World Thinks Railroader Article
Was “Significant” and “Treacherous”
Attack On National Railways

By GEORGE PIERCE

I N referring to an editorial printed in the Canadian Railroader on
February 26, the Toronto World characterizes the article as a
“significant” and “treacherous” attack on national railways.
It is interesting to note the amusingly clever way in which it has
“black-lettered” the sentences which it considers to be dangerously
treacherous and sinister. Those who have not read the editorial in
the Toronto World may rest assured, however, that the World took
particular care not to “black-letter” that portion of the editorial
which drew attention to the enormous deficits that our national rail-
ways are piling up.

The article is “treacherous,” according to the World, but to
accentuate the most dastardly sections of the editorial the World
proceeds to “black-letter” as follows: — “The huge deficits of Fifty
Million Dollars in 1919, and the rumored deficit of Sixty-five Million
Dollars in 1920 may prove to be the birth-place of this very singular
and meaningful thought of returning the railways to private
ownership. Generally the public conviction is that our
experimentation in running railroads is proving to be a very
costly affair at the very time when we have need of every ounce
of our strength and financial resources to remedy the financial and
industrial disasters of the war. . . Hitherto the advocates of
National Ownership have been sheltered behind very plausible
theories, etc., etc.”

Referring to our statement that brilliant, brainy men of railroad
experience are not prepared to give their best efforts altruistically for
the benefit of the public at large, the following sentence is also black-
lettered in an exceedingly interesting way from the view point of those
who are opposed to national expeditions and explorations into the
world of railroading: “Upon this grim but very truthful fact will be
shattered the hopes and the theories Qf the enthusiasts who
are still of the opinion” — (Note the termination of “black-lettering”
at this point), “notwithstanding huge deficits and the standing of
American railroads, that Government ownership is now a practical
possibility.”

We wish to acknowledge that it was very benign and exceedingly
benevolent of the Toronto World to remark in referring to us that it
was necessary “to go to a rather humble quarter” to determine what
the Canadian Pacific and its management was “thinking about.”
The Canadian Railroader is the organ of an unimportant group of
railroad men who evidently are not expected to have any opinions
concerning the nationalization of railways, and least of all to express
them, in view of the fact that there is an important newspaper in
Ontario which conveniently could do all our thinking for us.

However, in defence of- the truth, the Railroader is compelled to
say that if it were possible to take a vote of railroad employees on
national ownership, the Toronto World might get a bad shock.
We have numerous examples of other crafts which have come under
the direction of the Government and the results have been highly
unsatisfactory to the workmen involved. Shipbuilding for example,
And the “significant” fact that the Government Railways were the
first to earnestly suggest a very material reduction in wages has not
helped the national ownership group.

Mr. James Murdock, Vice-President of the Brotherhood of
Railroad Trainmen, in discussing the proposed reduction in wages in
Toronto on Saturday, said that the railway men of this country would

not submit to have the burden of the Canadian National Railways
deficit of almost seventy millions saddled on them. Mr. Murdock
declared: “If Hon. Dr. Reid or Hon. Frank Carvell or Mr. d’Arcy
Scott are figuring on this as a solution of their problems they are making
the mistake of their lives.” From the foregoing it will be evident
why railroad men are so interested in deficits. If a transportation
Company persists in losing money how can railway men secure a fair
rate of pay ? In passing we wish to assure the Toronto World that
we have not failed to note with deep impression that just as soon as a
Government owned railroad finds itself in difficulty, the first thing it
* proceeds to do is to take a crack at the pay-roll of its employees.

The employees of the Government owned railroads are all mem-
bers of the same Brotherhoods with the men who are operating on the
privately owned Canadian Pacific system. The Canadian Pacific
pays dividends while the Government railroads are piling up debts
that are staggering the entire country. The employees of the one
system are just as capable, competent and loyal as the employees of
the other. Why charge all the stock-jobbing, overlapping extrava-
gances and the frivolous errors of national ownership, to the employees ?
We are in absolute accord with Mr. Murdock that §5.25 a day is not
too much pay for a railroad brakeman for an eight-hour day or a run
of one hundred miles, or that S6.48 is too much for a switchman for
eight hours work in the yards. We also endorse Mr. Murdock's
statement that the cost of the necessities of life has not dropped so
that you could notice it.

It is correct to say that railroad men have been astounded at the
revelations of both Hon. Dr. Reid and Mr. J. L. Payne who was for so
many years the chief statistician of the Department of Railways.
Railroaders are interested in these things, because their bread and
butter is at stake. They are interested when they are told that it is
estimated reliably that the capital liability incurred by Canada in
connection with the ownership of Government railways is $2,274,-
125,000, and that the annual fixed charge on capital account is
$112,580,000. When there is talk of deficits of seventy millions rail-
road men begin to wonder how these tremendous sums are to be sweated
out of their bowed backs.

And in the reforms that are proposed we suggest forcibly that the
brilliant minds of the administrators could be concentrated to better
advantage on the reforms which spell efficiency, through experienced
and economic management, while leaving the question of a reduction of

wages severely alone. -

In other words, sixty thousand railroad men respectfully decline
the honor of rectifying a succession of Government blunders made by
both political parties, “past and present,” by eking out a deficit of
these proportions through the amiable process of underfeeding them-
selves and undernourishing their children in order to wipe out a deficit
that has so many figures that we simple folks get a headache trying to
decipher them.

Let the Big Moguls, who bought railways and railway systems as
a child buys peanuts at a country fair, get their high-brows together
and through the wizardry of finance and commercial genius strangle
the octopus of debt and transform the nightmare into the dreamy
elysium of financial security. All this is the special function of
finance. So lead on, ye Macduffs of national ownership, but be very
careful to leave the matter of our wages alone!

Page 4

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26 , 1921

Bad Housing Conditions

(By THOMAS ADAMS , in Town Plan-
ning and Conservation of Life).

T HE bad conditions in a house,
for which the occupant (own-
er of tenant) is primarily re-
sponsible, and which are difficult to
regulate by by-law, are: —

1. Overcrowding of rooms.

2. Lack of cleanliness.

3. Want of proper maintenance of
structure, drains, etc.

For the cure of the first and sec-
ond of these evils we must depend
largely on the education of the in-
dividual, but even here there is also
public responsibility. Some inspec-
tion by the local authority should be
undertaken to' prevent injurious over-
crowding or uncleanness. The local
authority should also see that own-
ers keep dwellings in tenantable re-
pair. But when we say, as most of
us have at one time or other been
tempted to say, that the housing
question is a matter of reform of the
indivdual and not one that can be
dealt with by public regulation, we
need to remind ourselves that, so far
as this is true, it is mainly in the
above three respects that it is so.
In other more important respects
bad housing is not the result of de-
fects of persons but of municipal
administration.

What, for instance, are the bad
con ditions in a house for which the
municipality is responsible?

These have been shown in hous-
ing investigations made in Canadian
cities to be: —

1. Excessive cost of site, as a re-
sult of unregulated speculation us-
ing up capital that should be put
into the improvements.

^2. PeAnitting buildings to be erect-
ed on damp sites, without being
drained, and on land containing vege-
table matter and garbage, without
requiring concrete foundations.

3. Permitting dwellings to be
erected and occupied without ade-
quate air space within and sur-
rounding them; of unsound and un-
safe construction; and without ade-
quate means of ventilation, proper
^Sl^i^p.ge and sanitation, and a sup-
ply of pure water.

4. Permitting buildings to be con-
verted into tenements or “rooming”
houses without proper sanitary con-
veniences and safeguards from fire.

5. Permitting houses to be used
_ior “rooming” or public lodging
houses without registration and fre-
quent inspection.

6. Permitting the continuance of
such abominations as privies; fail-
ing to construct sewers and provide
a water supply to all houses; failing
to pave streets and to require the
paving of yards round houses.

7. Failing to construct and main-
tain all drain connections between
the dwellings and the lateral sewers,
charging for the cost of same
against the property instead of leav-
ing such construction and mainten-
ance to the owner.

8. Permitting houses to be erected
without having plans and specifica-
tions first approved by the building

Mr. Thomas Adams.
Town Planning Adviser to the
Dominion Government.

inspector in accordance with proper
building regulations.

It is in respect of these light mat-
ters that the small dwellings in most
Canadian cities are chiefly defective.
They are all matters which the in-
dividual cannot control. The educa-
tion of the owner or tenant cannot
remove their powerlessness to deal
with them as individuals.

In the face of this fact and of
what we see around us in our cities
it is evident that our housing prob-
lem is mainly one of municipal rath-
er than of individual neglect.

There are of course, cases of over-
crowding of rooms and lack of clean-
liness, but not so numerous as we
might expect having regard to the
neglect of public authorities to give
facilities for healthy and clean con-
ditions.

Conditions in Suburbs.

Some of the worst conditions are,
however, just outside the boundaries
of cities where there are no sewers
and no water supply. One suburban
area has 5,000 population — mostly
built up during the last few years,
and a gre£t portion of it on land
which should never have been per-
mitted to be used for building. Lots
were sold some years ago for from
$150 up, more than ten times the
agricultural value of the land. The
district is now one of wells and
privies. Many families keep pigs,
which help to contaminate the wells.
A large portion of the area which
was visited was a cedar swamp,
where water liesto a depth of a foot
or more in spring. The streets are
unpaved, and are covered with rank
grass and weeds in summer. Garb-
age is now being dumped on that
site to raise it to building level.

The residents are poor and some
of them ignorant; but they are gen-
erally clean. The failure is not with
them. They are the victims of a
system that is beyond their control;
but not beyond the control of the
public authorities, if the land de-
velopment were planned in advance
under town planning regulations.

The above refers to conditions in
an eastern city. During May and
June last a housing survey was
made of portions of a western city
by the Medical Officer of Health. In
one district there were 416 dwelling
occupied by 4.141 persons on an area
of 81.9 acres. This represented an
average density of about fifty per-
sons to the acre. The building con-
struction was fairly good.

Bad Conditions in Western Cities.

There was no overcrowding of
rooms, but no fewer than 122 houses
had been improperly occupied as
tenements by from two to eight fam-
ilies, and in none of them had any
attempt been made to fit them for
tenements. Rooms too dark for oc-
cupation numbered 140; 78 had no
windows opening to the external air;
there were 54 basement dwellings;
347 families had 84 closets or 1 to
4.1 families, but in some cases 8
families used one convenience.

Other districts investigated brought
out similar facts. As a rule, the
individual family is living up to the
standard permitted by the condi-
tions and environment, created by
those who develop the land under
municipal guidance.

Generally speaking, where bad
conditions prevail they are due to
lack of proper by-laws, or lack of
administration where proper by-
laws exist. Provincial and local au-
thorities may regard the evils of
bad housing with equanimity, but
they cannot truthfully put the re-
sponsibility for these conditions on
the shoulders of individual citizens.

PROFITEERING.

“I suppose you marry a lot of
eloping couples, squire. Quite a
source of income, eh?”

“Yes; I git $5 for marrying each
couple an’ they come in such darned
haste I alius fine ’em $10 more for
speedin’.”

FATHER’S ENDORSEMENT.

Wife — That new nurse of ours
must be a Bowery product. She
speaks of the nursery as the “nois-
ery.”

Hub: Well, I rather think that’s
the way it should be pronounced.

FIFTY-FIFTY.

Butcher — This pound of butter you
sent me is three ounces short.

Grocer — Well, I mislaid the pound
weight, so I weighed it by the pound
of chops you sent me yesterday. —
Detroit Free Press.

SAD DISAPPOINTMENT.

“So you consider Jack misleading
and disappointing. Why, dear?”

“Well, he had me on the tenter-
hooks last night in expectation that
he was going to ask me to go to the
theatre.”

“And didn’t he?”

“No, he only asked me to marry
him.”

SHE WAS LISTENING.

He — Didn’t you promise at the
alter to love, honor and obey me?

She — Goodness knows what I
promised. I was listening to hear
what you promised.

‘PHILLIPS’

ELECTRIC WIRES AND CABLES

All Kinds of Bare and Insulated copper wires and cables and
“Shaped” copper, including:

Telegraph and Telephone Wires
Marine Cables

Trolley Wire Weatherproof Wire
Magnet Wire, silk or cotton covered
Enamelled Wire

Rubber covered wires. Flexible Cords.
Asbestos covered wires. Cotton Sleeving.

Busbar Copper Switch Copper
Commutator Copper Copper Strap

Lead-covered Power Cables
for pressures up to 25000 volts

Lead covered Telephone and
Telegraph Cables

Cadmium-Copper Wire

We also manufacture wire made of Cadmium-Copper Alloy
which is harder and has a greater tensile strength than ordinary
hard-drawn copper wire and hasonlyaslightly lower conductivity

EUGENE F. PHILLIPS
Electrical Works Limited

ESTABLISHED 1889 s

TORONTO - - MONTREAL - - WINNIPEG

r'

*4

\

1

1

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 5

Canada Has Not Fulfilled
Treaty Obligations

( By J. A. P. HA YDON, in the Canadian
Labor Press).

I N a recent article I showed where
Canada was lagging behind oth-
er industrial countries in the en-
action of a legal maximum work-
day of eight hours. What is true
in the matter of the shorter work-
day is also applicable to other ad-
vanced social and labor legislation.

The Canadian Government repre-
sentatives at the Peace Conference
and at the International Labor Con-
ferences talked much. One would
imagine by their utterances that it
was only a question of a few months
until all of the principles recog-
nized in the Labor Chapter of the
Peace Treaty would be recognized,
and, the Draft Conventions of the
International Labor Conferences,
carried out into full force and effect
in Canada.

The Washington Conference was
held in October-November, 1919. One
year and some months have elapsed
since then, but the legislation has
not yet found its way on to the sta-
tute books of Canada. It is per-
fectly true that the Canadian Gov-
ernment by Order-in-Council, passed
on November 6, 1920, decided what
could be done but up to the present
there has been no action.

Canadian statesmen point to the
United States and support the em-
ployers’ position that “Canada
should take no action unless the
United States was prepared to take
similar steps in the matter of ad-
vanced social and labor legislation.”

President Tom Moore, of the
Trades and Labor Congress of Can-
ada meeting this argument, which
was advanced by the employers’ rep-
resentative at Washington, said
“Canada did not wait on the United
States in entering the great war, and
we should not wait on the United
States now.

Canada has ratified the Peace
Treaty and the Labor clauses there-
in. Therefore, it was the duty of
the Canadian Government to carry
out its Peace Treaty obligations.”

The Windsor Convention.

In a previous article we pointed
out that the Rt. Hon. Arthur Meigh-
en, the Prime Minister of Canada,
while addressing the Windsor Con-
vention of the Trades and Labor
Congress stated that Canada must
act in co-operation with other in-
dustrial countries in carrying out
its Peace Treaty obligations.

The United States having refused
to ratify the Peace Treaty is there-
fore not to be considered in the de-
cisions affecting advanced social
and Labor legislation.

Canada ,is able to stand up for
the principles for which so many
of our gallant men laid down their
lives without reference to the Re-
public to the south.

The Canadian Government in re-
fusing to assume its responsibilities
is in exactly the same position as

the German Government,, against
whom the Supreme Council has re-
cently taken action. We are not
suggesting that Canadian workmen
should adopt similar tactics. But
the workers of Canada are becoming
restless and unless the Canadian
Government takes cognizance of the
great producing masses in the estab-
lishment of the principles for which
they fought during the great war,
there is no assurance that indus-
trial peace will prevail in Canada.

Unrest is due to many causes and
we believe the tardiness on the part
of the Government in carrying out
its Peace Treaty obligations is more
responsible than anything else.

While the eight-hour day is per-
haps the most important of all the
draft conventions adopted at the In-
ternational Labor Conferences other
questions are equally necessary in
the establishment of industrial peace.

vember 13, 1918, to provide grants
from public funds for the relief of
the unemployed. Doles were also
provided with a lavish hand in
Great Britain as soon as hostilities
ceased, and similar measures were
adopted in some other countries.

“These temporary expedients have
since given way to a more scientific
treatment of the unemployment
problem, which seems to be taking
the form chiefly of compulsory in-
surance against unemployment. In
Great Britain the Unemployment In-
surance Act of 1920 extends the
principle of compulsory insurance
against unemployment (formerly
limited to specific trades) to prac-
tically all employment except agri-
culture, private domestic service,
certain public services, and employ-
ment at a salary exceeding a certain
limit in the case of non-manual
work.

Compulsory Systems.

Compulsory systems of unemploy-
ment insurance in Italy and Austria,
and a scheme is in preparation in
Germany. The Italian act is of wider
scope than the British, in so far as

WHY THE PEOPLE’S RAILWAY DOESN’T PAY.

— Grain Growers’ Guide, Winnipeg.

Unemployment Insurance.

In the Speech from the Throne,
the Government indicated that it
was giving consideration to this im-
portant question. What action the
Government will ultimately take is
one of supposition.

Nevertheless we have the assur-
ance that the Department of Labor
is conducting an investigation into
the question, and I understand a
draft proposal will be submitted to
the Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada, the Canadian Manufac-
turers’ Association, and possibly the
Canadian Council of Agriculture, and
their views obtained. In the mean-
time it might be of interest to note
that other industrial countries al-
ready enjoy this legislation.

In a recent bulletin issued by the
International Labor Office, appears
the following:

“During the war the unemploy-
ment question fell quite into the
background in belligerent countries.
But the cessation of hostilities
brought it again into prominence at
once. In Germany a provisional
emergency order was issued on No-

it includes agriculture, and narrow-
er in so far as it expressly excludes
homeworkers. The Austrian meas-
ure is based upon the existing sys-
tems of sickness and old age insur-

ance, and includes all persons coming
under the various laws on those sub-
jects.

The benefits, too, take the form of
a percentage of the sickness bene-
fit to which the person concerned
would be entitled in the event of
sickness. But, in spite of differ-
ences of detail and fundamental dif-
ferences in methods of administra-
tion, the underlying principle of
compulsory insurance against unem-
ployment covering large bodies of
workers and salaried employees is
the same in each case, and it is es-
pecially interesting to note that the
idea of compulsory unemployment
insurance should have taken root in
ItSsJy, where hitherto the principle
of compulsory insurance had nol>
been adopted.

Social Insurance.

“There have been developments
also in other branches of social in-
surance. Compulsory old age and
invalidity insurance laws were
adopted in 1919 in both Italy and
Spain, where previously the sys-
tem of subsidized voluntary insur-
ance existed only, and in Belgium
an old age pensions act, on the
British model, was passed on Aug.
20, 1920.

There are also indications that
compulsory sickness insurance may
before long be introduced in the few
outstanding European countries
where compulsory insurance against
sickness has not yet penetrated.”

Canada’s Duty.

Surely Canada has statesmen big
enough to insist that the Peace
Treaty obligations be carried out in
spirit as well as letter. Canadian
workmen will not be content until
the principles of the Labor Chapter
of the Treaty of Versailles and the
Draft Conventions of the Wash ; r>£r
ton and Genoa Conferences are
ried out into full force and effect.

LOSING A SALE.

The Salesman — A pretty hous
slipper? Certainly. Here’s some-
thing that will please you. We have
them on sale to-day. Eight and a
half.

The Shopper — Sir! I wear noth-
ing larger than a three. Good dav.

FIVE ROSES FLOUR

FOR BREADS -CAKES
PUDDINGS U
PASTRIES

Can you guess

it?

There are housewives whose cake
is always praised — whose pastry is
famous for its melting flakiness—-
whose firm, light bread wins daily
compliments — whose puddings are

noted for savoury lightness— whose

cookies are so lastingly crisp.

They have one rule that applies to
all their baking

Can you guess it ?

Page 6

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

Slowing Down of Shipyard
Work in Scotland

( From Our Own Correspondent) .

Glasgow.

F ROM day to day the list of un-
employed in Scotland is being
added to with alarming rapid-
ity. The problems to be faced are
serious and much anxiety is felt by
all classes. The Dixon Ironworks
in Glasgow closed down this week
throwing out of work several hun-
dred men. The works are a famous
landmark on the south side of the
city and are known as “Dixon
Blazes,” a name that will recall
many memories to Scottish men and
women now settled in Canada.

Affairs on the upper and lower
reaches of the Clyde are gloomy in
the extreme. As a result, mainly,
of a strike of joiners, but partly in
consequence of the lack of- new con-
tracts, work is
being slowed
down to a very
marked extent
in some of the
shipyards. It is
found that there
is great delay
in the comple-
tion of new ves-
| sels because
progress cannot be made with the
woodwork, and there are quite a
number of steamers at the fitting-
out berths on which work is prac-
tically stopped. In some cases no-
thing whatever is being done on
ships launched recently, and the ves-
sels berthed at public quays are
running up bills for harbor dues,
-gdiile their builders can do very lit-
le to make progress with the work
of completing them .

In the circumstances there is a
very general inclination to delay new
vessels on the stocks rather than
launch them and find afterwards
that they are held up afloat. If
work must be stopped, it is explain-
ed, the more economical plan is to
hold the vessels up on the stocks
rather than to launch them, es-
pecially as in most cases, there is no
urgent demand for building berths.

At many of the yards practically
all the work on hand is now on the
stocks, so that there are very few
orders in the offices waiting for
their turn of the berths outside. But
for the lack of joiners, and the con-
sequent delays in fitting-out, the
vessels under construction would
have been launched as usual, and
the shipyards would have had by
this time a good many Vacant berths.
The fact that there are compara-
tively few vacant berths is mislead-
ing, because in a number of yards
it only means that ships are being
delayed and that very little is being
done on some of those on the stocks.
S.trike of Ships’ Carpenters.
These delays are caused principal-
ly by the strike of joiners, but they
are now affecting all classes of ship-
yard workers. On the vessels held
up on the ways there is a large

amount of ironwork remaining to be
done immediately before and for
some time after the launches. But
the postponement of the launch
means that the ironworkers are out
of employment meantime, and so
are considerable numbers of ship-
wrights and other artisans and also
laborers. How this affects employ-
ment may be illustrated by the con-
ditions in several upper reach yards.

In one there are two vessels ap-
proaching the launching stage and
one fitting out. On the vessel
launched work is stopped altogether;
on the farthest advanced of the two
on the stocks work is practically
stopped because she is not to be
launched until the strike of joiners
is over, while on the second work is
still proceeding but will be slowed
down in the same way in due course.
At another and much larger yard
there are seven vessels on hand —
five on the stocks and two fitting
out. Nothing whatever is being
done on the two which are in the
water, but they are occupying valu-
able harbor space which would have
been utilized before now by the
farthest advanced of the five on the
stocks if one or both of the two
launched had been completed. In-
stead work has been wholly stopped
on this vessel, -and in consequence
about 500 ironworkers and other
tradesmen, (about one-eight of the
total employed) have had to be dis-
missed — although there was no real
lack of work for them to do. They
could have been kept on for some
time longer, bringing the vessel ac-
tually to the launching stage and
afterwards when she was afloat, but
as she is not to be launched mean-
time their services are not required.
In a comparatively short time an-
other vessel in the same yard will
have reached a similar stage in her
construction, and then she too will
be stopped and a number of men dis-
missed.

If the stoppage of joiners con-
tinues long enough all the vessels
on the stocks will be affected in the
same way, so that the managers of
the yard see the complete closing
down of the works within a measur-
able distance. In some of the other
upper-reach yards the process of
slowing down is being distributed
more uniformly over all the vessels
on the stocks, and fewer men are be-
ing employed on each vessel; but
from these yards too the reports are
to the effect that it is only a ques-
tion of two, or perhaps three, months
at most until there will have to be
dismissals on an extensive scale. The
firms who have passenger vessels
fitting out are as a matter of course,
feeling most keenly the lack of join-
ers, but there are not many such
vessels in the water.

At some other yards it is stated
that the class of work on hand makes
very little demand for joiners, either
before or after launching, and that.

therefore, no great delays are being
experienced, but some of the firms
which build light craft state that
their work is being delayed greatly
because of the lack of men to make
and close up large packing cases.

Slow-Down of Work.

Although there is no case of a
complete stoppage of work at Green-
ock on any individual steamer the
general effect of the joiners’ strike
has been to slow down output and
to throw an increasing number of
other tradesmen on the idle list. For
example on one vessel which is well
advanced in fitting out the number
of workmen employed is reduced to
a handful. Other steamers are ef-
fected to a less extent. Of course
all vessels are no\ required in an
equal hurry, and it is possible for
firms to concentrate what joiner as-
sistance they have available on ships
whose delivery is more immediately
wanted. In recent weeks the num-
ber of workmen of other trades paid
off owing to the strike has increased.
The men so listed receive no unem-
ployment donation, and they are ex-
periencing serious hardships.

There is more unemployment at
the Port Glasgow yards than for
many years back. About 40 per cent,
of the men who were working for
the New Year holidays are now idle.
While only one boat is actually held
up because of the joiners’ strike pro-
gress with other vessels is affected.
No new work has been booked by
any on the firms since the start of
the year, and quite recently one firm
had two orders cancelled.

Work in Paisley.

The effect of the joiners’ strike is
keenly felt in the shipbuilding yard
in Paisley and it is held to have been
responsible for 15 to 20 per cent, of
the dismissals which have taken
place or are pending. Over a dozen
vessels are on the stocks in the dif-
ferent yards. 0f these at least three
have arrived at the stage at which
further progress is impossible ow-
ing to the lack of joiners. Work on
the others is being pushed forward
except where it is obviously impoli-
tic in view of the prevailing condi-
tions. Should the strike last for,
say, six weeks or two months longer
the effect will be to bring work to
a standstill on practically all the ves-
sels which are at present in course
of construction.

A meeting of the members of the
Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation
was held in the North British Sta-
tion Hotel, Edinburgh — Sir Alexand-
er M. Kennedy, president, in the
chair. • At the close Sir Charles
Saunders, the secretary, in an of-
ficial statement, said the meeting
was one of a series which were be-
ing held for the purpose of review-
ing the whole position of the indus-
try, including cancellations of con-
tracts, suspensions of contracts,, etc.,
and to consider how best the Federa-
tion could alleviate the situation and
help bo tlu employers and employed
by introducing an upward movement
in the trade to take the place of the
present downward tendency.

They had reviewed the position
thoroughly, and in all probability

“I Wonder
Would It
Help Me?”

'J'HIS question has been
go- answered by many thous-
ands of women who have
found health and happiness in
the use of Dr. Chase’s Nerve
Food.

Sleeplessness, irritability, nervous-
ness, gloomy forebodings of the
future, depression and discourage-
ment — these are some of the symp-
toms which tell of exhausted nerves.

In order to avoid nervous prostra-
tion or some form of paralysis it is
well to get the building up process
established at once by use of Dft
Chase's Nerve Food.

BO cents a box, 6 for $2.75, all dealers, or
Bdmanson, Bates & Co., Ltd., Toronto,

Dr.Chase’sl^^
Nerve F>6dg§il^

there would be a further meeting in
about two week’s time, when their
members had considered in their re-
spective districts what the position
Was.

No Reduction in Wages.

With reference to the statement
regarding a suggested reduction of
25 per cent, in wages, Sir Charles
Saunders said that no such proposal
was discussed at the meeting, and
the employers had no knowledge
whatever of the suggestion which
had been published. The employers
had stated to the employees some
weeks ago at a conference that they
would not ask for a reduction of
wages at the moment if there were
any other methods of reducing the
cost of production in the industry.
If, however, no means of reducing
costs could be arrived at a wages
reduction was inevitable.

In the course of the discussion, he
added, incidental reference was made
to the strike of joiners in the ship-
yards, and, he continued, the em-
ployers were as determined as ever
that the preferential treatment
granted to the joiners in the shape
of twelve shillings per week special
advance over other shipyard trades
would not be revived.

— James Gibson.

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 7

RELIGION AND BUSINESS

( The Commercial and Financial
Chronicle , New York).

T HE war has destroyed other
things than men's posses-
sions and men's lives. . . .
Science, with its confident grasp
upon the forces of nature and its
faith in evolutionary process, not
only did not save us from war, the
deadly effects of which it intensified,
but it awakens no confidence in its
ability to restore what it has de-
stroyed. In manufacture in com-
merce, in economics, in social rela-
tions. devices of various kinds, based
upon the much-vaunted methods of
laboratory results and the teaching
of the schools, are being tried, or
adopted, without supplying founda-
tions for the reconstruction of an
upheaved world.

Now we have several prominent
business men, presidents of banks
and trust companies, in public ad-
dresses laying emphasis on more
honesty and higher conception of
honor in business transactions as the
chief need, emphasizing in a word
the superior importance of character
and recognizing man's place in the
scheme of things as a moral and
spiritual being.

This gives timeliness to a book,
“Religion and Business," by Roger
W. Babson, of which Macmillan is
bringing out a new edition.

The New Testament.
Incidentally it is worth while to
call attention to the fact that books
have not escaped the havoc of the
war. In almost all lines, in the
sciences, in philosophy, in history, in
medicine, in social studies, few books
have retained their standing. The
one book that stands out with newly
accepted authority and value is the
New Testament.

It is recognized that the writings
which compose it are by men who in
a very exceptional way knew both
God and men, and men not merely
as individuals, but as living in hu-
man society.

We are awakening to see that the
short, definite sayings of these writ-
ers about social and civil affairs that
people have seized on and made such
use of as suited their need, belonged
wholly to the world of their day.

While underneath all are to be
found great truths and positive prin-
ciples of action which have lost not
a whit of their validity; things etern-
ally true and living; of which it may
be said with Sophocles: “A mighty
God is in them and groweth not
old.”

The Test of Centuries.

When therefore men begin to talk
about the need of character, still
more of religion, what is it but call-
ing us back to the teaching that
has stood the test of centuries, and
which, in the form it was first given,
was never so widely read, or felt to
be so essential to man’s highest wel-
fare as it is to-day.

There should therefore be no sur-
prise when one who has spent many
years in studying the course of busi-
ness in the hopes 9f gaining the
knowledge which would lay the

foundation for general business
prosperity, comes to the conclusion
that there is a connection between
religion and business, and that, be-
yond all that the science of statis-
tics may teach, the significance of
religion is primary and supreme.

The religion he has in mind is not
a religion of creeds and confessions
but of personal experience and daily
practice. That religion he finds in
loyalty to Jesus Christ, which, of
course, carries us back to the New
Testament.

In the controversy between Labor
and Capital Mr. Babson points out
that Labor is under a double handi-
cap; Labor cannot endure a long
strike; and is slow to see that short-
ening of hours and increase in “dol-
lar wages" increases the cost of pro-
duction, and this eventually comes
back upon the laborer. Substituting
the autocracy of Labor for the auto-
cracy of money would not secure
peace.

A Change of Motive.

This will not come until men ex-
perience a change of motive and “be-
come endued with a desire to be of
service,” and that will only be when
religion becomes a real force in in-
dustry.

This means a change in men's
dominant motives. It cannot be pro-
duced by artificial means; no action
of a board of directors, or any pro-
fit-sharing scheme will produce it;
nor will platitudes about the inter-
ests of Labor and Capital being mu-
tual.

All this applies equally to the em-
ployer with this additional efnphasis;
to have influence, he, because of his
stronger position, must possess and
exercise this spirit first, and so
clearly that it cannot fail to be re-
cognized by his employees. The
primary demand arises there. The
ethics of the office are to-day of
more importance than those of the
shop, those of the directors more
than those of the employees. When
the spirit of Christ is evident in the
head, a response in kind may be ex-
pected in the staff. The self-respect
begotten of this spirit js enduring
and satisfying.

To do our best we all need to see
that our work is worth while; to
make the most of life we need the
sense of service; over-work must be
directed to satisfy ends. Training,
discipline, respect for authority and
for individual rights, team-play, in
short, all are essential to this.

Labor and Religion.

Mr. Babson holds that the labor
problem is a religious problem in
that it is ultimately a question of
mutual understanding and service.
Wages, in the one hand, and business
growth, on the other, over which the
contest now mainly exists, are in
themselves indeterminate.

With the desire for service comes
interest in production; and only by
production can the worker increase
his earnings in terms of house, food,
clothing and provision for the fu-

ture; and only by production can the
employer be content.

The nation needs more labor and
more capital.

Each must be made to see that
the future of each depends upon co-
operation with the other.

This is the standpoint of religion.
To carry it into effect four lines of
effort are suggested: (1) Get the
facts. See the other fellow's point
of view. (2) Establish effective con-
tact. At least some one party at
interest, stockholder, director, own-
er, should be personally known by
the worker. (3) Cultivate personal
respect on both sides, remembering
that at bottom interests are common.
(4) Insist upon discipline, with re-
spect for integrity, efficiency and
industry. This means more of or-
ganization rather than less, but with
mtore personal responsibility every-
where.

Fundamental Truths.

The fundamental truth is that Na-
ture's law of equal action and reac-
tion Jesus applied to men. It is as
true in the spiritual and social realm
as in the economic and physical. If
you want others to be honest with
you, be scrupulously honest with
them; if you want loyalty, be loyal;
if you want confidence in you, show
confidence in others; if you want
cheerfulness, keep cheerful. Men
fail to observe this relationship
mainly because they lack religion.
Only the reaction of a settled faith
in Jesus Christ will sustain a man
in this line of conduct, because Love

is the divine impulse, and when that
is kindled in the heart the glowing
light is there and shines for all.

This reaction of religion on the
physical life is one of the newly dis-
covered truths. It is now known
that faith, hope, joy, goodwill, sym-
pathy, affection, patience, generosi-
ty, the characteristic religious vir-
tues are chief elements in creating
and preserving health.

What business men need to know
is that, beyond this, religion and re-
ligion alone. gives a satisfying faith
and opens to a man the sources of
spiritual power.

The heart, which as life advances
is found empty and dissatisfied,
though life may have brought wealth
and power, bears testimony to this.

The reaction to the opening of a
heart to Jesus Christ is a new life,
a new joy, with new powers. God
has come into a man's life, and pray-
er becomes his bond of intimacy. . . .

DESTRUCTIVE COMPETITION.

Competition for cheapness and not
for excellence of workmanship is the
most certain cause of the rapid and
entire destruction of arts and manu-
factures. — Josaah Wedgewood.

PERFECT LI'L GENTLEMAN.

Mrs. Goodhart — What would you
say if I gave you a nice drink of
lemonade?

Neighbor's Child (aged 6) — Here’s
lookin' at you!

PAY-DAY SAVING

You are paid regularly.

Save regularly. When
pay-day comes, put some of
the money in a Savings Ac-
count in The Merchants Bank.

One dollar — five dollars — ten dollars
— whatever you can conveniently afford.

And put in the same amount every pay-
day. $1. opens a Savings Account — de-
posits of $1. and upwards are w el coined.

THE MERCHANTS BANK

OF CANADA

Head Office: Montreal. Established 1864.

399 Branches and Agencies in Canada, extending
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Page 8

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

Cl )c Canahtan 3&atlroatier

WEEKLY —

The Official Organ of

The Fifth Sunday Meeting Association of Canada

ORGANIZED SEPTEMBER 1916

Incorporated under Dominion Tetters Patent.

April, 1919.

J. A. WOODWARD, President
J. N. POTVIN, Vice-President
W. F. BERRY, Sec.-Treasurer

C.P.R. Conductor
C.P.R. Train Dispatcher
G.T.R. Conductor

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:— S. DALE, C.P.R. Engineer; D. TRINDALL.
O.T.a. Locomotive Engineer; J HOGAN. C.P.R. Asst. Roadmaster; ARCHIE DU-
FAULT C.P.R. Conductor; E. McGILLY, C.P.R. Locomotive Fireman W.
DAVIS * Gantral Yard Master; W. FARLEY. C.P.R. Locomotive Engineer; M.
JAMES C.P.R. Engineer; S. PUGH. G.T.R. Conductor; Wm. PARSONS. C.G.R.
Agent

The Canadian Railroader was founded by railroaders, is
largely supported by railroaders, and is issued in the interest
of railroaders and all other workers by hand or brain.

Yearly subscription: $3.00;

Single Copies: 10 cents

Published weekly by

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER LIMITED

316 LAGAUCHETIERE ST. W., Corner Beaver Hall Hill, MONTREAL
Telephone; MAIN 6222

4&SS & Sto 17

GEORGE PIERCE, Editor

KENNEDY CRONE, Managing Editor

in December, 1920, but fuel had increased to 118 p.c. It might also
point out that recently there have been big advances in rents in some
cities offsetting the declines in food and clothing.

As regards the relation of prices and wages before the war,

Prof. Irving Fisher, of Yale, wrote: , . .. , . .

“From no point of view can the conclusion be justified that the
main cause of the present rise of the cost of living is due to labor
unions. This rise is world-wide, being felt in Europe and India, where
American labor unions and labor leaders cannot, by the utmost stretch
of the imagination be supposed to dominate the situation. Moreover,
so far as American statistics show, such as those of Bradstreet and the
Department of Commerce and Labor, wages have risen only about halt
as fast as the cost of living. If it were ture that the increasing de-
mands of labor unions, by increasing the cost of producing commodities,
had resulted in a general increase in prices, these would surely have
risen more slowly than wages. The facts, however, show that the
cost of living has increased about twice as fast as wages, and this seems
to be approximately the rule during any period of rising prices. In
other words during rising prices the laborer is the loser. In fact his
strikes and insistent demands for higher wages represent a belated
attempt to overtake the advancing cost of living. Labor disputes and
demands are thus an almost invariable accompaniment of rising
prices, but they are effects of rising prices, not causes.”

And if labor is also to be the loser during periods of falling prices,
as some people think, it should be, then the present order of civili-
zation offers labor no hope, of that steady improvement in its condition
which alone can prevent social upheaval — and, perhaps, disaster.

— Colin McKay.

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER is a carrier and
interpreter of the news and views of
- the common people.

Helping the Dependents

Forcing Down Wages

A LITTLE over a year ago the men of light and leading were
shouting from the house tops that the supreme duty of everybody
was to work and save, in order to help pay the war debt. Hard
work and economy spelt salvation, we were told, and extravagance
was anathema. And evidently the advice of our wise men fell on
fruitful grounds ; for soon there was an outcry that there was not
enough work to go round, and a doleful wail that the public is not buy-
ing and goods weren’t moving with their accustomed celerity.

— So the wise men again took council together, and warned the people
that if they did not buv— buy— buy— buy— business would go from
bad to worse. But it’s warning came to late. Many people were
alreadv out of employment and were squeezing their savings; many
others' were living in fear of being thrown out of their jobs, and were
restricting their purchases.

Again the wise men took council together, and the word vent
forth that the workers must accept reductions of wages in order to
facilitate the return to normalcy. The fact that reductions of wages
would reduce the workers’ ability to buy, and thus tend to further
^depress business was evidently lost sight of by the wise men.

No doubt people interested in companies whose share capital
has greatly depreciated in the stock market in recent months feel
badly used and naturally think there should also be a speedy liquida-
tion of wages. But is it a wise policy, from the point of view of
business, generally, to assail wages ? Efforts are being made tq
create the impression that the resumption of business activity and
the development of the country generally are being held up by high
wages. But for many years wages in Vancouver were much higher
than in Halifax, and Vancouver was and is a much more substantial
city than Halifax,— and a better city for the average business man.
If low wages are the big consideration for business men, it is surprising
that they do not all migrate to China or India.

The assumption of the present campaign t;o force down wages is
that wages now are high as compared with pre-war times— the blessed
age of normalcy. But wages are high or low only as compared with
prices, and the Dominion Labor Department is publishing statistics
which show that the advance in wages generally has been less than the
advance in prices. Taking returns from 13 Canadian cities the De-
partment finds that the weekly scale of wages advanced 79 p.c., while
the hourly rate advanced 90 p.c., as compared with the 1913 scale.
In regard to the cost of living the Department points out that the
average increase in all items for a family budget, when the peak was
reached in July, 1920, was 101 p.c. over 1913. Increase of food was
130 p.c. over 1913, fuel 91 p.c., clothing 160 p.c., rent 34 p.c., and
sundries 90 p.c. The Department says food had dropped to 102 p.c.,

A CASE of a soldier, who disappeared on active service and was
recorded as having deserted, is coming up before the parlia-
mentary committee which is dealing with soldiers’ re-establish-
ment, the evidence now pointing to the theory that the man was
murdered. The matter is of interest not only as relating to the
man’s honor — even if only' in memory — but as to the treatment of his
family, for the latter have suffered the denial of pension. There are
also a number of cases of men who were shot on the battle-field for
desertion. Although Canada is a nation, according to the Hon.
Newton Rowell, our Government has never been mfomed of how
many Canadians were dealt with summarily in this way. When the
matter was brought up in parliament, in April, 1919, by the then
leader of the Opposition, Mr. McKenzie, the solicitor-general ot that
date, the Hon. Hugh Guthrie, stated in the House of Commons that
he had been informed that a number of Canadian deserters had been
executed, while others had got sentences of imprisonment up to thirty
years. The minister further stated in reply to a query, that as these
men were overseas and committed an offence against British law,
they were under the jurisdiction of British authorities. He had been
informed that there were some, but there was no official information.
Thus Canada was allowed to send about 400,000 men over to fight,
but what happened to some of those who fell out of line from the
point of view of morale, this country was not allowed to know.
Apparently it was only when the League of Nations met that Canada
became a nation.

As usual, in such cases, it is the women and the children, the
innocent, who suffer. Supposing there were sixty men who weqe so
shot and one hundred who were sent to jail, this means that some-
where in Canada are possibly one hundred families (for some of the
men might have no dependents) who sent their husband or father to
fight, but who, owing to subsequent events, have received no com-
pensation. It is plain that but for the war they would have had their
bread-winner. Surely in such a case, the penalty suffered bv the man,
death or long imprisonment, is enough, and the wife and family or the
aged mother should be looked after by this country.

The trend of thought today among social workers is in the direc-
tion of removing indirect penalties. Thus, Ontario and certain other
provinces or states on this continent, are seeking to abolish the bar
sinister for the unfortunate children born out of wedlock. It is just,
the same principle. If Canada values children and wants healthy and
well-reared citizens, it is crass stupidity to handicap them and their
mother because a husband and father failed for any reason. The same
argument would apply to the families of all men who serve jail terms,
and if the committee now at work on the evolving of a mothers
pension scheme for Quebec succeeds in bringing about legislation for
that purpose, it is to be hoped that the claims of these unfortunate
families will not be overlooked.

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 9

Mixed Satisfaction

(The New Republic, New York)

U NTIL very recently, there were a good many thousand men, in
the mills of the United States Steel Corporation, who worked
seven days in the week; and a good many thousand more who
worked twenty-four hours at a stretch every two weeks because there
had been found no more sensible way of changing them from the day to
the night shift. And now at last Judge Gary has announced that the
seven day week and the long turn have been eliminated by the Steel
Corporation and all its companies. We hear various expressions of
pleasure about it. The New York World says that “the statement
will meet general approval; 1 ' and multitudes of people feel no more
strongly than this. For our part, we salute this “reform” with as
much joy as we should, in this year 1921, hear news that Negroes
could no longer be sold as if they were furniture, or that Harvey has
discovered the circulation of the blood. Even were one prepared to
hail this change as one of the victories of progress, and not as arrears
of decency paid shamefully late, the satisfaction would be mixed.
For the 12-hour day has not yet been abolished.

MURDOCK OBJECTS TO
LOWER WAGES FOR

THE RAILROAD WORKERS

(By Canadian Press).

Toronto.

Janies Murdock, vice-president of
the Brotherhood of Railway Train-
men, a former member of the Cana-
dian Board of Commerce, in an in-
terview here said the railwaymen of
this country would not submit to
have the burden of the Canadian 'Na-
tional Railways “deficit of almost
$70,000,000 saddled on them.”

“If Hon. Dr. Reid or Hon. Frank
Carvell or Mr. d'Arcy Scott are fig-
uring on this as a solution of the
problem, they are making the mis-
take of their lives.”

Mr. Murdock asserted that $5.27
a day was not too much pay for a
railroad brakeman for an eight hour
day or a run of a hundred miles, or
that $6.48 a day was too much for
a switchman for eight hours' work
in the yards, and that the United
States Railway Board three weeks
ago had referred to these wages as
reasonable and fair. “The cost of the
necessaries of life has not dropped
so you can notice it since then,”
Mr. Murdock added.

He said that d'Arcy Scott might
be right in his theory that if wages
were reduced freight rates might
also be lowered, “but who will say
that such a proposal is fair to the
men?” he asked. “I have not yet met
one railway man who will admit
that he should cut down his wages,”
Mr. Murdock said.

Mr. Murdock and Mr. Scott will
debate the wage issue before the
Canadian Club of this city, probably
on April 4. The date has not yet been
definitely fixed. Mr. Murdock re-
ceived a letter from Mr. Scott agree-
ing to come to Toronto to debate
the question with Mr. Murdock. Mr.
Scott stated that he would argue
that the McAdoo award and the Chi-
cago labor award were too high, and
that in order to bring railway rates
down there must first be a reduction
of the wages of railway labor.

NOTHING TO IT.

Judge— This man says you de-
liberately ran over him.

Smart Motorist— That's nonsense.
I leave it to you, your honor. How
can a man deliberate when he is go-
ing sixty-five miles an hour?

TWISTED NEWS.

(From the Labor World).

The Associated Press certainly
knows how to put over skilful pro-
paganda against the working class.
We take off our hat in admiration
to the low-pay news artists.

A despatch from Chicago dated
March 8th declares that wage de-
creases of approximately 12 ^ per
cent, affecting more than 100,000
employees of the packing industry in
all parts of the United States was
“officially announced” on that date.
Who did the official announcing is
not stated, but the word “officially”
makes the announcement look like a
law of the Medes and Persians that
changeth not. Who could doubt that
the wage reduction was certain,
solid, unalterable after that word
“officially ? ”

The despatch goes on to state that
overtime will be paid only after ten
hours have been worked. It is not
stated directly that the ten hour-day
is going to be the rule, but “of-
ficially” the overtime only begins
after ten hours.

After this slaughter of wages
which is declared to be so certain
to take place, it is announced that
the packers are working out plans
to establish closer relations between
the workers and the management of
the various plants with a view of
giving the employees a voice in all
matters of mutual interest.

Less Wage and Longer Hours.

Of course after the wages have
been sliced in a goodish manner, and
after hours have been lengthened,
and such trifles which would seem
to only affect the employers, the
workers will be allowed to discuss
other questions of mutual interest
with the employers under the eagle
glances of the agents of the bosses.
But that “mutual interest” stuff
sounds good in a press despatch.

At the tail end of the despatch in
a small paragraph it is stated that
the representatives of the employees
will meet in Ohama, Neb., to con-
sider the reductions and the abroga-
tion of the arbitration agreements.

If the workers have anything to
say about whether wages are cut and
hours lengthened, how can it be said
that the wage cut and long hours
are official until the working class
have sanctioned them?

To see the absurdity of the As-
sociated Press Agency's position, let

ui reverae the condition. Let u§ tup-
pose that the workers were demand-
ing an increase of wages of 12 Ye
per cent, and the reduction of hours
from forty-eight hours per week to
forty-four hours per week, and ask-
ed that the new rates and hours
should be put into force from the
14th day of March onward. Then
let us suppose the Associated Press
sent out a despatch as follows:

More Wage and Fewer Hours.

“It is officially announced that the
wages of 100,000 employees in the
packing establishments of the
United States will be increased 12y 2
per cent, and ,hours will be reduced
from 48 to 44 per week on and after
April 1st next.

The employees ar§ getting to-
gether in a spirit of mutual helpful-
ness with the employers by allow-
ing the employers to introduce ani-
mals into the slaughter houses to be
dressed by the employees, and will
consent in a spirit of mutual tolera-
tion that the employers retain six
per cent, profits upon the moneys
actually invested in the plants, the
remaining profits after providing for
depreciatnon, sinking fund and other

fundi a a wall at providing for fundi
to take cara of extensions to indus-
tries will go to the working-class at
a bonu^ upon their labor.”

Suppose the Associated Press
should flash such a message over the
wire as being “officially announced,”
and should add in an obscure para-
graph the statement that the em-
ployers were meeting shortly to dis-
cuss the advisability of accepting the
new order of affairs. Just imagine
wihat an uproar would arise from the
owning classes against the Associat-
ed Press.

But that is the kind of distortion
of the news which the Associated
Press serves up against the working-
class. The working-class do not pro-
test. They are so accustomed to
such mistreatment that they think it
natural.

HOW IT'S WORKED.

Mrs. Browne — I can make a fool
of my husband whenever I want to.

Mrs. Towne — How do you work
it?

“Easy. Let him have his own
way.”

SUBSCRIBE TO

Cfte Canadian
&atlroatier

PUBLISHED WEEKLY

The Paper With a Punch On All Labor and Social Questions

Founded by railroaders, largely supported by railroaders, but
also read by many others interested in progress of the people

It advocates reforms by —

BALLOTS, not Bullets
DEMOCRACY, not Dictatorship
CONSTRUCTION, not Chaos
REASON, not Ranting

Endorsed by many leading Canadians. It gets to the thinking
people of all classes. Three dollars a year payable in advance

Office : 316 Lagauchetiere St. West, cor. Beaver Hall Hill

MONTREAL
Telephone Main 6222

Date

I enclose $3, year’s subscription to Canal) tan KailroaDer.

Name

Address > -

Page 10

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

Statesmen in Workshops

(By Robert Bldtchford ) .

A SHORT time ago I read in a
morning paper some lines
from a speech made by Mr
Hodges, the Labor leader, in which
he said or implied that he had lost
his faith in democracy.

I have never met Mr. Hodges, and
am quite out of touch with the Labor
movement, but I understand that he
is one of the younger spirits of his
party. The discovery which seems
to have checked his democratic ard-
our is not new to us older men. I
expressed the same idea quite thirty
years ago in a speech at Ashton,
when I said we could not have de-
mocracy withput democrats.

Real democrats ask. and hope tha-:
the people will take an intelligent
interest in national affairs. That
if the majority are to rule, the ma-
jority will give serious attention to
the task. That, in fact, they will
help in the work of national self-

Robert Blatchford.

government. I suppose that is what
Mr. Hodges expected or desired. If
so, his disappointment was inevit-
able.

The multitude will not accept dut-
ies which to them appear to be
arduous and dull. They prefer foot-
ball, or the movies, and they are,
from their own personal point of
view, not unwise. I myself prefer
cricket and literature and science to
politics.

— The Strain of Politics.

I worked in Labor politics for
many years, but I always longed for
the greener pastures and the more
shady groves in which I felt so much
more at home. Political and indus-
trial strife are coarse and blatant.
They tire the brain and disgust the
soul. They spoil one's best years
with their wranglings and dis-
appointments. None but enthusiasts
or born thrusters can stand the
strain. None but the eager or the
unselfish will make the sacrifice.

At times of special crisis, when
some temporary excitement or
plausible election cry has disturbed
the popular stagnation, a majority of
the people will rally to their lead-
ers' call, and, if they do not take
the trouble to understand the issue,
will at least vote upon it.

But the popular zeal is ephemeral,
and the popular memory is weak.
Most of our people are too deeply
interested in the task of living or

earning a living, or they are en-
grossed in sport, love, in various en-
joyments or emplyoments which
make no serious intellectual demand.
As Anatole France says: “Men can
live without thinking. Indeed, it is
generally thus that men do live, and
no great harm to the community re-
sults."

An Organized Minority.

All these things Mr. Hodges will
know as well as I know them, and
I take it that if he is disappointed
with democracy it is because he
finds, as I and others found, that
the masses will not take the trou-
ble to be democrats.

We have got to face the facts. If
we cannot have a real democracy,
we must do the best we can with a
compromise. It has always been the
case, and it is the case to-day, that
the country is ruled by an active,
organized minority, with the tacit
consent of the apathetic or indiffer-
ent multitude.

The question, I opine, which his
disillusionment has raised for Mr.
Hodges is how shall that dominat-
ing and directing minority be com-
posed, and by what means shall it
impose its will upon the majority?
This brings me to Professor Soddy.

I have just been reading with
great interest Professor Soddy's
book, “Science and Life," and I find
that the professor, like Mr. Hodges,
is not satisfied with democratic rule
as it exists or fails to exist in Bri-
tain after the war.

Substitute for Democracy.

The war, Professor Soddy says,
has caused him to change some of
his views v It has shaken his faith
in democracy, and he expresses a
wish for a government of intellec-
tuals or a democracy of intellect —
I forget which, and my copy of the
book is not at hand. So here we
have the Labor leader and the pro-
fessor both asking for something
which the late Sir William Sinclair
once described to me as a workable
and harmless substitute for democ-
racy.

Now, with all due respect to Pro-
fessor Soddy I am not enamoured of
his proposed government of intel-
lectuals. Of course, a good deal de-
pends upon the meaning the pro-
fessor attaches to the word intel-
lectual.

In the general use of the word I
think it is understood that an intel-
lectual person is one who thinks.

.Taking that meaning, I would ask:
Would the State be benefited by a
government of thinkers ? Do we
not rather need a government of
actors ?

Thinkers, in my experience, are
not usually men of action. A states-
man needs an active rather than a
reflective brain. Fine oratory im-
plies an intellectual faculty. But
fine orators are not always great
statesmen. We select our rulers for
their proficiency as speakers, and I
think the results do not justify the
method.

The men we need for the conduct

of home and foreign politics are
clear-headed, plain-thinking, prac-
tical men. I would not go so far as
to say that the best kind of politician
is a business man, but I do believe
that a first-class business mind is
nearer the ideal of a statesman than
a first-class literary or scientific or
artistic mind.

I think, too, that to employ the
kind of men I call intellectual in
politics is to waste power; to put
square pegs in round holes. The
man of scientific brain is of most
value to the nation when he is em-
ployed in science.

We do not want to throw away
such men as Professor Soddy, Pro-
fessor Thompson, and Professor
Munro by making them Home Secre-
taries or Ministers of Labor. We
do not want Mr. Galsworthy in a
cocked hat at Whitehall, nor Mr.
Frank Brangwyn in a silk hat at the
Post Office.

A Good Statesman.

It may be claimed, to be sure, that
a good statesman must be intellec-
tual or he would not be a good
statesman. I am not prepared to ad-
mit that, but let it pass. We will
say, then, that to succeed in states-
manship a man should possess intel-
lect, though I should prefer the term
brain-power.

. But that brain-power needs be of
a special kind, and it is, I am con-
vinced, an error to assume that any
intellectual person, no matter what
may be his type of intellect, pos-
sesses the special kind of brain-

power which statesmanship de-
mands.

We should not assume that a great
scientist must be a great painter be-
cause he has a great intellect. We
should not expect a great poet to be
a great inventor, nor a great soldier
to be a great financier. Why, then,
suppose that the great scientist, the
great poet, the great soldier, and all
the legion of novelists, sculptors,
sailors, engineers, and philosophers
are bound to prove successful in poli-
tics and in government?

I think this idea of a government
of intellectuals is a mirage. I see no
more reason for accepting it than
for accepting the opposed idea of a
perfect government of colliers, boil-
er-makers, shop assistants, and car-
penters.

Statesmen in Workshops.

There are, doubtless, some embryo
statesmen in our mines and work-
shops and also amongst our learned
and professional men, but it is a
mistake to assume that a man is a
born statesman because he is a join-
er or a bricklayer or a doctor or an
author.

The problem to-day is the old
problem of how to get every man
'into the position where he will be
of the greatest value to the com-
munity. If there is any substitute
for democracy which will solve that
problem, I have yet to make its ac-
quaintance.

I quoted just now a few lines
from Anatole France's “Life and
Letters"; I will now quote the com-
plete passage. It is useful: — \

“Ca n I Do Without It”?

A SK yourself this question
when next you think of
purchasing something that is
not really necessary.

The number of things you can easily
do without and the amount of money
you will save will be surprising.

For your present and future
safety you cannot be without
a Savings Account. Start one
next pay day.

THE ROYAL BANK
OF CANADA

Deposits exceed 440 millions

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 11

More Population the Most Urgent
Need is C.P.R. President's View

Men can live without thinking, in-
deed, it is generally thus that men
do live, and no great harm to the
community results. On the other
hand, the State has need of the di-
verse and harmonious action of all
its citizens. It is by acts and not by
ideas that peoples live.

It is, as I have said, essential that
the shoemaker should stick to his
last and the artist to his easel, ex-
cept in the rare cases when they
would be better employed in political
work. It is of more importance to
the nation that the citizens as a
whole should work well and live well
than that they should become dis-
organized and ineffectual through
efforts to discharge political duties
for which they have neither aptitude
nor inclination.

Candidates for Parliament.

Our present method of selecting
and electing candidates for Parlia-
ment is not satisfactory, but I can-
not believe that government by trade
unions or intellectuals would be an
improvement.

There is always a pathetic differ-
ence in human affairs between the
dream and its fulfilment; between
the thing we desire and the thing
we achieve. There is good sense in
the proverb that we get the gov-
ernment we deserve. Government is
like a mirror; what we see in it is
our own face. Governments do not
lead, they follow, giving, with a
grudging hand, only that which they
no longer consider it safe to refuse.

Middle-class government is very
like aristocratic government. Labor
believes that a Labor Government
would be a great improvement; but
that is because Labor has not been
tried.

Carlyle was very emphatic on the
necessity for having the real right
men to rule, but he never told us
how to find them. As things are
with us to-day our rulers must be
chosen by the popular vote, and if
the voters do not know the men they
vote for, or are not good judges of
character, we have to put up with
the consequences.

The Impatient Minority.

One of the things experience has
taught me is not to cry for the moon.
Sounds simple? Yes, but it is not
easy when tho moon is very bright,
and you desire it very keenly. I am
afraid that Mr. Hodges and Profes-
sor Soddy have not mastered that
lesson yet.

There has always been an eager,
impatient minority hungry for pro-
gress, confident that they could
achieve wonders if the masses would
follow them. What a little word is
“if,” yet it is harder than Mount
Everest to climb over.

If the people were all democrats,
or all Socialists, or all patriots, how
soon could we make England a land
fiit for heroes or, perhaps, cranks to
live in! If!

But the people are all busy; busy
working or seeking work; busy en-
joying themselves or hunting for
enjoyment.

I once asked a very energetic and
successful business man why he did
not go into Parliament, and he said:
“Oh, it’s such a waste of time, and

( The Gaxette, March 21).

I NTERVIEWED on the subject of
the deficit on the Canadian Na-
tional Railways, ' Mr. E. W.
Beatty stated that he was not pre-
pared to make any statement except
that the fact must not be forgotten
that the management of the Na-
tional Railways were operating un-
der exceptionally difficult circum-
stances not of their own making, but
emphasized in their case by the un-
necessary mileage comprised in a
system, parts of which were built
for competition with the other, and
not as part of a single transporta-
tion unit. *

The C. P. R. president stated that
the gravity of the situation could
not be denied and that a solution of
the difficulties facing the Canadian
people in the possession of this ex-
pensive system was one which should
command the attention of the best
minds and the advice of the best ex-
perts in the country.

Increase in Population.

“I am afraid,” he said, “that many
people in Canada do not sufficiently
realize that the most urgent and
essential need to-day is increase in
population, not only to provide traf-
fic for the railways, but also to help
pay our enormous national indebted-
ness.

“So far as the railways are con-
cerned, the National Railways are
even more concerned in this demand

I prefer my own job.” What could
one say to such an answer? If a
man is doing useful work which he
likes is it wise to ask him to quit it
and take up a position which does
not appeal to him, and for which he
may have no aptitude?

Making and Spending.

Perhaps we worry too much about
government, and take our politics too
seriously. Governments do what they
are told — when they have been told
often enough, and when they have
reason to believe the people in earn-
est.

For years' and years and years
numbers of us denounced and con-
demned the party system. Very well.
Now we have got a Coalition. How
do we like it?

I believe that every Socialist and
Labor man was down on the party
system. Now the parties have unit-
ed into a solid phalanx we are hop-
ing for a strong Labor party. Very
good. If we get a strong Labor
party that will mean the resurrec-
tion of the party system. And I
hope we shall all enjoy ourselves
as much as we expect to. But the
heyday in my blood is tame, and I
shall not get excited about it.

One of the functions of Govern-
ment is to spend money. One of the
functions of the people is to make
money, to work for it. The latter
function is of more vital importance
than the former to the welfare of
the State.

for population than the Canadian
Pacific, owing to the extent of
sparsely populated country in which
so much of their mileage is located.

“It was an aggressive immigra-
tion propaganda that built up the
Canadian Pacific, and without im-
migration the prospects of the Can-
adian National are, in my opinion,
hopeless.

Desirable Settlers.

“Any legislation which would stem
the tide of desirable immigration
must inevitably pile up further de-
ficits, for immigration is Canada’s
great salvation. Mr. Crerar, who
was speaking particularly in the in-
terests of the National Railways,
struck the right note when he de-
clared before the Canadian Club of
Montreal, that a wise and vigorous
immigration policy would help solve
the problem.

“Mr. Crerar also referred in an-
other address to the foreign bom
immigrants, commending the pro-
gress they had made in Western
Canada and pointing out that over
fifty per cent, of the students at
Manitoba University were of for-
eign parentage.

“The same evidence is contributed
in an interesting article in the ‘Grain
Growers’ Guide,’ in reference to the
three hundred thousand Ukrainians
in Western Canada, in which it is
stated that these people of sturdy
farming stock from Central Europe
have four large educational insti-
tutes at Saskatoon, Winnipeg and
Edmonton respectively, and had be-
come a real asset to Canada.

“The people from the Scandi-
navian countries have made admir-
able settlers. During the year 1920,
nearly 1,600 of these came as immi-
grants to Canada, of whom only 10
were deported. All of them are
thrifty, hard working people.

People Not Wanted.

“I quite agree with those who ob-
ject to the immigration of city-bred
Continentals of poor physique and
doubtful health, who would at once
drift into slums, or of large com-
munities of foreign born who frank-
ly declare they do not intend to as-
similate with English-speaking Can-
adians, but I consider it absolutely
necessary to the immediate better-
ment of Canadian financial, commer-
cial and traffic conditions, that the
gates of Canada be once more open-
ed not only’ to the British, French
and American immigrant, but also to
the Scandinavian and the more de-
sirable type of Continental.

Sort of People Needed.

“It is not only farm hands and
domestics who are required.

“What progress can Canadian in-
dustry make if the skilled mechanic
is to be practically shut out?

“And without Canadian industry
where are we to find exports for the
Canadian Merchant Marine?

“We neither can, nor dare stop

MASSON Dental Co. Ltd.

Dental Scientists

Teeth extracted without pain

152 PEEL STREET

Uptown 5602

860 ST. DENIS STREET

St. Louis 4613
OPEN EVENINGS

this tide of desirable immigration,
or say to it like Canute ‘Thus Far
and No Farther.’

“Policies which are perfectly Ap-
propriate in the case of the United
States would not necessarily be ap-
plicable to this country. By all
means lot us exclude the undesirable
immigrant, but admit those who in
time will contribute to this coun-
try’s commercial prosperity and
economic strength.”

“Maud’s husband is the make-up
man on a newspaper.”

“I suppose his work is to make
up those sensational stories they
print. What a fascinating job!”

Loews

THEATRES

n n

MONTREAL

TORONTO

OTTAWA

HAMILTON

LONDON

WINDSOR

n n

POPULAR PRICES

Excellent Entertainment

Page 12

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

Labor’s Work Plan in the
Old Country

{By the Right Hon. J. R. CLYNES , M.P . ,
Chairman , British Labor Party).

T HE problem of unemployment
is clearly not a special line
with the critic. It takes him
out of his depth, and to keep his
head above the surface of tolerable
discussion he clutches at any old
thing which may come his way, and,
by fixing a number to it, classifies
it as a remedy for unemployment.
In this way he gets an assortment
of figures tacked on to a few im-
potent statements and some impu-
dent assertions.

It is indeed impudent to put all
the blame for unemployment, as our
destructive critic does, on workmen,
and to assert that the cure is to be
found in stopping unnecessary
strikes; in not setting class against
class; in higher output, and in ad-
mitting ex-service men to building
trades. This is a fair summary of
all his remedies.

Hard Work and No Work.
Before the Labor Party was creat-
ed class was against class. Labor
did not create that condition. Labor
was created by it. Labor does not
want strikes, but has often been
compelled to use the strike weapon
to secure the most moderate conces-
sions. Some strikes, it is true, have
been unwise, just as it is true that
maximum output must be a condi-
tion of maximum enrichment.

But it is no use talking of output
without knowing what is to be
Labor’s share of it, and whether
hard work one day is to be the cause
of no work another.

Premier’s Statement.

Had the Government shown any
skill or fairness a settlement might
long ago have been reached in the
building trades, and ex-service men
admitted. When the Prime Minister
met the Building Trades’ Conference
prior to the Christmas of 1919 he
said:

“I know what the workmen have
got in their minds. They have got
the horror of unemployment. I won-
der what sort of Christmas-time an
unemployed man has to face for his
children. We must get rid of that
fear and horror of unemployment for
ever. That is a thing we have no
right to permit in a civilized com-
munity. It is a torture which no
humane citizen ought to commit.”

There you have a definite promise
to get rid for ever of the horror
of unemployment. What has the
Government done to put an end to
the torture?

There are many ex-service men
with ability as to advocates, with
some knowledge of the law, with
capacity for handling cases, and for
developing their legal knowledge.
Will some legal critic take the lead
in his own profession to admit these
eligible men to practice in the law,
s<5 that they might earn a living?

Will he tell us of any other pro-
fession or high and remunerative
pursuit which has shown itself ready

to do for educated ex-service men
any of the things which he insists
the building trades workmen should
do for ex-service men less educated?

I do not defend any lapse of which
any trade union may be guilty, but,
the whole movement must not be
condemned because of some action
of which every class is guilty as well
as a trade union.

Labor Party’s Accusers.

It has been asserted that the
Labor Party is using the unemploy-
ment situation for political pur-
poses. Those who think that should
advise the Government to settle the
question and dish the Labor Party
completely.

Our proposals on unemployment
are not made because we are trying
to formulate a popular political pro-
gramme. Indeed, we know that our
proposals must arouse as much hos-
tility as they may allay.

It is the fate of Labor continually
to assail established conditions in
a manner which provokes opposition
from people whose interests are in-
terfered with.

The least that the Labor Party
is entitled to ask its critics is that,
in the degree that Labor proposals
on unemployment are deemed to be
unworkable or wrong, the proposals
should be replaced by workable or
wise proposals which the Govern-
ment should make to settle the ques-
tion. It is not fair to reject with
contempt the remedies of the Labor
Party without putting anything in
the place of those remedies equal
to the grievances suffered from un-
employment.

What Electors Expected.

The Government cannot offer as
an excuse the view that the times
are abnormal, and that the extra-
ordinary degree of unemployment
cannot be cured by legislation.

The Government offered a cure.
Elections were won upon the offers
made, not bnly in speeches of the
Prime Minister but in speeches put
in the mouth of the King when the
two sessions of Parliament were
opened before this last one.

It will not do, now that unemploy-
ment is become worse than ever, to
seek shelter under the pretext that
the evil is so great that it cannot be
cured.

In the King’s Speech, when Par-
liament was opened in February,
1919, it was stated that: “We must
stop at no sacrifice of interest or
prejudice to stamp out unmerited
poverty or to diminish unemploy-
ment and mitigate its suffering.”

The King’s Speech.

In the King’s Speech of the fol-
lowing year we were told that “the
task of restoring credit and industry
is one of the first conditions of a
return to a state of peace”; and now,
after all the promises, we are told
in the last King’s Speech that the
question cannot be dealt with by
legislation!

Now, after all the promise!, we
are told in the laat King’s Speech
that the queition cannot be dealt
with by legislation!

There is nothing in the plea that
existing conditions could not be fore-
seen. Long before the war ended
the Government had a large number
of committees at work, and many of
the best minds in the country were
engaged on plans for great works
of reconstruction, in order that the
enormous arrears and losses involved
in the war should be made good.

More than a score of pamphlets
were issued by the Government out-
lining the lines of action which could
be taken, and efforts were made to
create a sense of security in the pub-
lic mind that the situation could be
saved when the war ended.

What has happened to these
schemes? Where are the fruits of
all the plans?

Let the Rulers Rule.

The men who are now in power
claim to be fit to rule. They say
Labor is not. Well, let them rule!

Good government in these days
consists in meeting national neces-
sities, and in so arranging both in-
ternal and external affairs as to se-
cure not only useful employment as
a means of wealth-production, but
also as a means of contentment for
the population.

Our workpeople depends upon the
maintenance of export trade. Surely
that trade has been shaken by the
failure of our rulers to establish,
long before this, such a condition
of peace and restored commercial ac-
tivities as would have enabled the
millions of people in this and other
lands to resume their ordinary trade
and business activities.

Foreign policy and the handling of
the Peace settlement have had more
to do than anything else with the
breakdown of export trade. While
this breakdown continues, the Gov-
ernment should use every available
and appropriate ounce of labor which
it can secure, to deal with the enor-
mous amount of necessary and pro-
ductive work which could be under-
taken within these shores for the
permanent benefit of the whole na-
tion.

What Might Have Been.

The factories and workshops in
which the Government employed mil-
lions during the war could have been
used for numerous productive pur-
poses during the last two years of
so-called peace.

A policy of paying something for
nothing, and giving some part of the
wages of those who work to other
people who do not work at all, is a
travesty of government which can
be undertaken by any number of in-
competent persons who could succeed
in getting themselves elected.

The remedies of the Labor Party
for unemployment have been set
forth in the clearest way in a docu-
ment of more than 40 printed pages.

Every member of Parliament has
been supplied with a copy, and we
have appealed to the Government, for
a full opportunity to discuss in Par-
liament the Bill which we have in-
troduced, and which contains our

FRANK HODGES,
Secretary of the Miners’ Federation
of Great Britain. One of the
younger lights in the British
Labor movement.

proposals in detail. Meantime we
are thrown back upon measures of
relief instead of productive and bene-
ficial employment. And the utmost
that we have been able to wring
out of the Government for unem-
ployed workers is 2s. a week more
than the 18s. proposed in the Gov-
ernment’s Bill last week.

The cost to the State by the new
Insurance Act will be much less than
a million pounds a year. That is as
much as we lost in half a year on
Irish railways alone by our stupid
“government” of Ireland.

Forty shillings is asked for unem-
ployment benefit and most of that
40s. would come, not from the State,
but from the industries and the
workmen, and 40s. now has a lower
purchasing value than had 15s. be-
fore the war.

Before the war 30s. a week was
deemed to represent the lowest
standard of life for the humblest
laborer. It is not extravagant now
to demand that a level equal to half
that standard should be guaranteed
to men willing to work but unable
to get it.

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 13

SEVEN DAY WEEK STILL

EXISTS IN THE MILLS
OF THE U. S. STEEL

New York.

The statement by Judge E. H.
Gary, chairman of the United States
Steel Corporation, that the seven-
day week and the long turn in chang-
ing shifts have been “entirely elimi-
nated by all our companies, ! ” and
that a committee of presidents of
subsidiary companies might be ex-
pected to report the result of their
investigations of the 12-hour day
question in the near future, was re-
ceived with interest by those who
have* been waiting to see what effect
the Inter-church World Movement's
report on the steel strike might have
on the corporation.

Heber Blankenhorn, secretary of
the commission, whose inquiry re-
sulted in that report, said to your
representative that the announce-
ment that the seven-day week had
been eliminated should be compared
with similar statements made by
ge l officials during the past 10
years; such a comparison would
show that it was eliminated from
the mind of the public only, not
from the mills, according to Mr.
Blankenhorn.

He called attention to the Inter-
church report, which states that the
coiporation asserted flatly during
the strike that the seven-hour week
had been abolished before the war
and resumed during the war, but was
quite done away with by 1919.

The report further states that the
president of the Carnegie Steel Com-
pany and of the Illinois Steel Com-
pany, subsidiaries of the corporation,
assured the commission that seven-
day week-work was a thing of the
past.

A letter from Mr. Gary to the
commission, printed in the report,
states that prior to the war the
seven-day week had been entirely
eliminated except as to maintenance
^nd repair crews on infrequent oc-
casions; that during the war there
was considerable continuous seven-
day work, due to the request of the
Government for more production,
but that this was changed with the
close* of the war.

The report also quotes Judge
Gary as having testified before the
Senate committee: “We decided to
eliminate the seven-day week if we
possibly could, and we practically
eliminated it.”

The commission investigating the
steel strike found that the facts did
not bear out statements of the
corporation; the seven-day week had
not been eliminated. Thus, since
he thinks that the steel companies
have already convicted themselves
out of their own mouths, by coming
out again with an assertion that the
seven-day week has been abolished,
Mr. Blankenhorn is not inclined to
pin much faith to the statement.

“This report seems to come out
every so often,” he said, “and the
public is always surprised to learn
that the seven-day week still exists.
The point is that the public has no
reason to believe that this announce-
ment means any change in condi-

tions in the mills or that it even
indicates that there will be any »uch
changes.”

As to the announcement by Mr.
Gary that a committee has been ap-
pointed to consider the 12-hour day
question, and that its report is ex-
pected, perhaps within 30 days, this
is no indication that the 12-hour
day will be abolished, Mr. Blanken-
hom added; the only thing to do was
to wait and see.

BUILDING GUILDS.

(By A. BUCKLEY, in Town Plan-
ning and Conservation of Life).

For ten years or more a group
of English writers have been
preaching the virtues of Guild in-
dustry. The term indicates a so-
ciety of craftsmen who believe they
can serve the public better and can
obtain better and more stable work-
ing conditions for themselves as a
labor democracy than in subjection
to what they consider the autocracy
of capitals When the housing short-
age in England had become a na-
tional calamity and the Government*
were faced with a programme of
800,000 houses — which it was ad-
mitted could not be built on eco-
nomic terms with the cost of build-
ing multiplied four times in com-
parison with pre-war prices — these
writers approached the Building
Trades Union and said: “Why should
not you take on this work as Build-
ers' Guilds? You posses the most
important element in the solution of
the problem, a monopoly of labor.
Why not offer this to the local au-
thorities, who are under national
obligations to provide houses, and
arl almost in despair at the enor-
mous increment in the cost of build-
ing?”

The suggestion was adopted first
in Manchester, then in other cities
in the north of England, later in
London and Wales, and now in a
number of centres the building
guilds are at work. As soon as the
reasonableness and the practicability
of the scheme had been demons-
trated the municipal housing com-
missions agreed to the proposals of
the workmen, the Ministry of Health
endorsed the movement, the Whole-
sale Co-operative Society — the
largest manufacturer of building
materials in the United Kingdom
aside from the Government — offered
its aid in the supply of materials
and agreed to insure the municipali-
ties against loss.

Organized public service and not
profit-making is the watchword of
the Guild. Its surplus earnings will,
under no circumstances, be distribut-
ed as dividends, but will be used for
the improvement of the service, the
provision of increased equipment for
technical training, the elimination of
hired capital, the abolition of. un-
employment and the promotion of a
contented industry. |

In Canada there is evidence of
the consciousness of the movement,
but no practical steps seem yet to
have been taken. Mr. J. A. Ellis,
Housing Director of the Ontario
Government, has recommended it as
a way out of the housing deadlock

in Toronto. He has suggested that
the Housing Commission should pro-
vide plans, secure materials and ar-
range the financing of a housing
scheme, but that the actual building
should be managed and executed by
a building guild.

Mr. J. T. Gunn, business agent of
the Electrical Workers' Union, pre-
sented a similar scheme to the Build-
ing Trades Council of Toronto, which
was placed before the city council,
but nothing further seems to have
been done. It was estimated that a
saving of $800 per house would be
effected by the elimination of the
surplus cost that is incident to the
ordinary system of building for pro-
fit.

Of the long day with Were
done.

Not till the hours of light return.

All we have built do we discern.

— Matthew Arnold.
ALWAYS RIGHT.

“What's the dispute about?” de-
manded the proprietor. “Remember,
in this store rhe customer is always
right.”

“He says you're an old shark,” ex-
plained the clerk briefly.

What is supposed to be tbe salti-
est lake in the world is at Senlac,
Saskatchewan. Its salt content runs
from 53 to 55 per cent., as compared
with 10.7 for Salt Lake in Utah. The
lake covers an area of 185 acres,
but is only 18 inches deep. It is^
however, fed by living salt springs,
and its level is thus maintained.

SEE A VET.

“I want your advice, old man.
Jones called me a donkey. Should
I consult a lawyer?”

“Hadn't you better see a vet,
first.

A CROSSING TRAGEDY.
There was a young fellow named
Izzie,

Who went for a drive in his lizzie;
His view of the train
Was hidden by rain —

And that was the end of poor Izzie.

A

Salt,

Witnoui _
Comparison

LIFE.

With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
We bear the burden and the heat

i

indsor

Table

the Canadian salt ro,.

MACDONALD’S

PRINCE

OF

WALES

Chewing

Tobacco

Canada’s

Standard

since

1858

Page 14

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 26, 1921

OUR LONDON LETTER

British Miners Threatened
With Cut in Wages

( From Our London Correspondent) .

London.

T HE most engrossing topic in
British industrial circles at
the moment is the situation
in the coalfields.

With our export trade almost re-
duced to vanishing point, and sev-
eral thousand miners thrown out of
employment in consequence, the in-
dustry has no economic basis that
can fairly be tabulated. Complete
Government decontrol ceases on
March 31st and owners and men are
sparring over new wage terms. The
employers are talking of drastic
cuts. The miners admit that some
reduction cannot be avoided unless
the State comes to the rescue, but
are naturally keen on keeping as
much as they can preserve. In the
meantime men working will levy
themselves to help those unemploy-
ed, of whom there are about 100,000
or some tenth of the whole.

Unless wages in this country are
calculated on a series of additions to
the basic rates,
which are a con-
stant puzzle to
the uninitiated
and aften a
source of uncer-
tainty to the
men themselves.

I can best illus-
trate the pres-
ent proposals by
stating a purely hypothetical case of
a hewer who might in 1914 have a
' — 'basic wage of eight shillings per
shift. Even such basic wages varied
in districts but the figure will serve
as a platform for the argument.

Back to 1914.

The owners wish to get back to the
1914 standard in fixing upon the
basic wage. The mistake should not
be made of imagining that this
/ means a return to 1914 earnings.
There is what is known as the dis-
trict percentage to be taken into ac-
count and certain other matters.

Suppose the basic wage of a
miner to be 8s. a shift. To this
there is added, under present ar-
rangements, a district percentage of
50, making 12s., then 14.2 per cent,
was added as an adjustment in re-
spect of the reduction in hours from
eight to seven a day under the San-
key award. Then came the extra
20 per cent, given to him last March.
To these sums is added the flat rate
increase of 3s. as war wage — given
in two rises of Is. 6d. each — and 2s.
Sankey money, so called because it
came as result of the Coal Commis-
sion presided over by Mr. Justice
Sankey. The total of these com-
plexities brings the wage of the man
who started computing at 8s. a shift
to 21s. 5d.

What the owners propose is that
the 8s., plus 50 per cent., equalling

12s. for this hypothetical man should
constitute his new standard rate per
shift. That settled, they wish to
divide the remainder of the income
with him in such proportions as shall
be determined by district negotia-
tions, making due allowance, of
course, for other working costs and
sums required as royalties.

Leaders of the men want to in-
corporate the old basic wage, which
I will still call, as illustration, 8s.,
the 50 per cent., the 14.2 per cent.,
the 20 per cent, and the first war
wage of Is. 6d.

What the Leaders Want.

This would bring the new stand-
ard of 17s. lid. and they desire to
leave the second Is. 6d. war wage
and the 2s. Sankey money as a
floating margin — if the industry is
able to stand it they would keep
the whole of this 3s. 6d. If not,
they would take off the 2s. first and
then, if necessary, the Is. 6d.

being abnormal times, resulting di-
rectly from war conditions, the na-
tion should subsidize the industry,
owners and men, in order that they
shall not suffer until trade booms
again. There is little hope of sym-
pathetic reception of this proposal in
Government circles, because the
present outcry here is for economy
and the new Budget is looming.

In one responsible quarter I have
heard a suggestion that the men
should strike to retain their wages,
but the hopelessness of a strike on
a falling market is recognized by
miost trade union leaders and noth-
ing is likely to come of that idea,
unless the men are goaded to des-
peration.

Meanwhile, the situation is ag-
gravated by the fact that reduced
output, consequent on the closing of
certain pits, has wiped out all the
increases the men gained on the slid-
ing scale initiated after the coal
strike last year. This is the an-
nouncement of the Secretary for
Mines:

“It was definitely agreed that, if
during the test periods the weekly
average output was maintained at
the weekly average of the September
quarter, the advance (on the original
increase of two shillings) should be
one shilling per shift, and that if
September figure was exceeded the
advance should be increased by six
pence in certain specified steps.

“The output during the first test
period ended December 8th was suf-
ficient to increase the advance from
2s. to 3s. 6d. during January. Dur-
ing January the effects of trade de>
pression became apparent, output
fell, and the advance for Februarj
was reduced to Is. 6d. For the same
reason the output figure for the test
period ended February 19th is un-

fortunately lower still, being 17,-
654,400 tons, compared with the rate
of 19,040,000 tons in the September
quarter, with the result that the
wages advance has now disappeared
altogether.”

Wages of Seafarers.

The shipowners have given notice
to the National Maritime Board that
they intend to demand big reductions
iii wages of all seafarers, and they
ask for an early meeting of the
Board to consider the matter.

The owners propose a reduction of
£4 10s. a month for navigation of-
ficers and officers on deck and en-
gine-room department, and £5. 10s.
in the catering department, with pro-
portionate reductions for crews of
weekly vessels, and an entire re-
vision of overtime for all ratings.”*

The captain of a 5,000 ton cargo
boat gets £40 a month; the new rate
would be £35. 10s. Able seamen get
£15; the new rate be £10. 10s.;
cooks, etc., would drop from £13. 15s.
to £8. 5s.

The Imperial Merchant Service
Guild and the Sailors and Firemen’s
Union are resisting the proposals.

To quote the words of Mr. Joe Cot-
ter, the President of the National

cheek.”

They were the greatest exploiters
of the country during the war. The
first increase- in the cost of liv-
ing came about through increased
freights by the^shipowners’ mad
scramble for profits.

“If things are so bad now as ship-
owners would like to make out,” says
Mr. Cotter, “how is it that the Cun-
ard Company can increase its capital
by £4,000,000 at one lift and can
build a new fleet of steamers. Also,
I should like to know how it is that
these poor bankrupt shipowners can
buy steamers like the Imperator and
Bism&rck.

“Shipowners must imagine that
British seamen are in their dotage.”

The cost of bunker coal has de-
clined since Armistice Day by 300
per cent., yet passenger rates were
increased 10 per cent, only this week,
and are now 250 per cent, above
pre-war. Freights are also abnorm-
ally high.

Among the Builders.

The building operative unions have
decided to propose a new wage
scheme to their members. It will
mean a voluntary reduction.

The principle of the scheme is that
on the reduction in the cost of liv-
ing by a clear 6.5 points in any per-
riod of six' months, a reduction in^
wages of a halfpenny an hour
comes into operation. A fall of 13
points in the cost of living would
mean a decrease in wages of a penny
an hour. The halfpenny decrease
automatically works from a basis of
170 points above the pre-war cost of
living.

The proposal will be submitted to
the rank and file of the constituent
unions of the Federation for their
opinion by April 4th.

— Ethelbert Pogson.

m

In L 2 and 5
pound boxes. Ask
for t >he “ Delecto ”

Box.

Chocolates

TPHAT big, berlbboned box of exquisite
"Delecto'' Chocolates brings back the
joyous memories of honeymoon days
and keeps romance alive in every-day life

Originated by

GANONG BROS. LIMITED
ST. STEPHEN, N.B.

Makers for 50 Years of Fine Chocolates.

The Finest in the Land

Ethelbert Pogson

cjiuuii ujl omps iBooks, .Durcners

Bakers, the suggestion is, on the
Mr. Frank Hodges, the Miners’ part of the shipowners, “brazen
secretary, has, however, another
solution to offer. It is that, these

March 26, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 15

HAVE YOU?

(By Orville Leonard.)

Have you ever seen the smoke
clouds from a forest fire burning?
Have you ever lived for hours in
that crackling, bright inferno? Have
you had your shoe soles burned off
by those dead looking white ashes?
Have you seen men shouting wildly,
though you could not hear their
voices for the roar and hiss of leap-
ing flames and the fierce wind they
engendered? Have you ever seen
a country which was furred with liv-
ing fire and wondered if you'd ever
live to feel the cool wind blowing?
Have you ever seen a rancher driven
from his fired homestead, while
years of labor on his fields were
wiped out in an hour? Have you
ever looked down a line all hedged
and feathered wild things have beep
burned up, every one? And have

you seen that country when the fire
fiend has finished — the blackened
stumps of noble trees, the white
ashes, burned bare rocks, no living
thing — black, deathlike desolation
brooding over all?

If you have, you'll see that your
match is out and look where you
throw your cigarette.

GREAT SCHEME!

“Smart couple.''

“What makes you think so?"
“Why, they feed the baby garlic
so that they can find it in the dark."

HARD FOR HIM.

“Is that new hired man a hard
worker?"

“I'll say he is," replied Farmer
Corntossel. “I don't know anybody
that work seems to go harder with
than it does with him."

FAIRBANKS - MORSE

RAILROAD SUPPLIES

Motor Cars, Track Tools, Electric Baggage
Trucks, Hand Trucks Section
Men’s Engines.

Your recommendation of Fairbanks -Morse Railway
Supplies will be appreciated.

il Canada 1 s Departmental House for Mechanical Goods. 1 '

THE CANADIAN FAIRBANKS - MORSE CO., LIMITED

Halifax, St. John, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton,
Windsor, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria.

D. S. PERRIN & CO.

LIMITED

LONDON :: :: CANADA

MANUFACTURERS OF

BISCUITS

AND

Confectionery

Railroad Gauntlets

FIT WELL
LOOK WELL
WEAR LIKE IRON
SOLD EVERYWHERE

The w. R. Broch company. Limited

DEALERS IN

DRY GOODS, WOOLLENS AND CARPETS
WHOLESALE

MONTREAL

Cor. Notre Dame West and St. Helen Streets
Cor. St. Helen & Recollet Sts.

TORONTO CALGARY

60-68 Bay Street Cor. Eighth Avenue and Second

11-47 Wellington Street. Street West.

DOMINION

COALCOMPANY

fim / ted

DOMINION

• unci m

SPRINCHIUL

BITUMINOUS
STEAM aru *
CAS COALS

General Sales Office

112 ST. JAMES ST. MONTREAL

Consolidated Asbestos, Limited

MINERS OF ALL GRADES OF ABSESTOS

Mines at Thetford Mines, One**
and Robertsonville, One.

EXECUTIVE OFFICES

Dominion Express Building, St. James Street,
MONTREAL, Que.

EXCLUSIVE MAKERS OF THE CELEBRATED

“Dairy Cream Sodas”
“Tipperary”, “Sherbet”

AND

“Malto Cream Sandwich" Biscuits

Sold by all leading Grocers

Page 16 THE CANADIAN RAILROADER March 26, 1921

- - — | r - T ■ - - - — —

LAURENTIDE

COMPANY

LIMITED

1

MANUFACTURERS OF

Newsprint Paper
: : Cardboard : :
Sulphite Pulp
Groundwood Pulp

QUE.

GRAND’MERE,